Glenn Frey’s ‘El Blurto’ Songwriting Experience

Late Eagles icon Glenn Frey recalled how he’d come up with a name for the shared experience of struggling to write songs with creative partner Jack Tempchin, labelling the experience – and Tempchin himself – "El Blurto."

The partnership spawned 11 of Frey’s 12 solo hits during the ‘80s, while Tempchin also contributed to Eagles classics including “Peaceful Easy Feeling,” “Already Gone,” “The Girl From Yesterday,” “Somebody” and “It's Your World Now.”

One particular part of the writing process was when a short series of connected ideas suddenly came together after a long time of looking for inspiration, as Frey told Uncle Joe Benson on the Ultimate Classic Rock Nights radio show.

“Sometimes when you get together and you’re having conversation, and you’re sitting there with legal pads and guitars or taped music, and you’re trying to write a song,” he said. “Every once in a while you’ll have these moments when you go, ‘How about this?’ You write four lines or you write six lines or you write two lines that you think are really good. We always sort of think that’s like ‘El Blurto.’”

He added: “Sometimes you can drive yourself nuts trying to figure out what you’re supposed to do, and you need to get free a little bit sometimes. Jack is actually very responsible for loosening me up a little bit, and getting me sort of unafraid to try things.”

Glenn Frey – “You Belong to the City”

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